Recorded at the renowned Fame studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, MIND MAN MEDICINE is album number five from sisters Laura and Lydia. Praised for their voices, the Secret Sisters stiking familial harmonies are central to the songs on this set. “Paperweight” has country bounce with sweet vocals and some fine fiddle. Tension is created in the excellent “Same Water” through the huge guitar hook and the emotional vocals. ‘We’re all drowning in the same water’ is a powerful lyrical image. “Never Walk Away” has a retro 60s girl group feel with passionate singing. Tracks like eerie love song “Space” and “If The World Was A House” feature washes of contemporary miasma and drone around the hypnotic voices. Singer Ray LaMontagne duets on the superb Bonnie Raitt like gospel smoulder that is “All The Ways”. With its chiming electric guitar and plantive vocals, “Planted”, “Ive Got Your Back” and the piano led “I Needed You” have a Vashti Bunyan or Mo Tucker otherworldly fragility with edgy strings. “Bear With Me” is an excellent love song with especially fine vocals from Laura and Lydia. There is something too in the sense of isolation conjured by the lyrics ‘Bear with me im a stranger in my skin, till I know myself again’. “I Can Never Be Without You Anymore” has a raw Guy Clark feel, sweetened by those beautiful chorus harmony. This is a song that is, so going to soundtrack more than a few intimate red wine evenings.
Beautiful, delicate and finely balance music with two fine voices.
Marc Higgins 14/06/24
https://hmv.com/store/music/cd/mind,-man,-medicine
New West 11 songs
Time Past and Time Passing 